Mastering Homelessness:

Today, I’d love to draw your attention to something that is near and dear to my heart. It’s a globally known struggle that each one of us, no matter how blessed or well-of we may consider ourselves to be… we all are only a few misfortunes away from… Homelessness. In an environment where people are scrapping for cash, scrapping for opportunities, scrapping for health, scrapping for basic nutrition and shelter, there is very little room for alignment with a capitalist society without the introduction and discussion of the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty and questioning the morality of such a system. The most obviously effective way I could think to demonstrate this idea is through what I’m currently experiencing right now as a resident of North Carolina. There are newly constructed luxury apartment homes in the North Davidson district of Charlotte, NC that offer residents access to music studios, game rooms, co-working spaces, wellness centers, yoga studios, and pet grooming facilities. Three blocks away exists an entire community of people who likely do not own pets, or yoga mats, or need access to music studios. In these three blocks live an entire community of people whose fancy apartments may be a camping tent with ventilation in the summer. How is it that we can drive in our fancy cars, live in our fancy apartments, and drink our fancy cocktails all while ignoring the growth of homelessness right before our eyes?

The reason that you should care about this issue of homelessness is because as of March of 2020, chronic homelessness affected 3700 individuals across the county. According to a Spectrum News interview of a homeless man named David in an article titled “Charlotte Homeless Population living in tents as shelters fill up”,

David fears if nothing changes, the row of tents will only grow bigger.

“Treat others like you want to be treated,” David said. “When you see your brother or your sister in need, get off your high horse, get off your pride and get over here and help.”

I wish it were that simple. For the sake of our future world and children, I wish we could boil all the complexities of the works of “othering” down to a simple problem with one simple solution… just getting off our high horses.

According to the Mecklenburg county of North Carolina, there are a variety of city programs designed to assist the overbearing homeless community population and it’s growth such as a homeless resource center, shelter plus care, a housing stability fund, and coordinated entry which is a community- wide system that aims to connect individuals or families who are homeless, or at imminent risk of becoming homeless, to an existing available shelter or housing resource in the community. All of these resources are available and yet you can’t get on a highway in Noda without seeing the following depiction. I’ve included this photo because I don’t have an additional 1000 words, but this image certainty does.

This picture was taken on January 29th, 2021 on my iPhone while driving past an intersection entrance to Interstate 277. I’d seen these tents for months before ever thinking to take a picture. And I’d briefly met the acquaintance of many of the community’s members through way of stop light solicitation for cash, food, or prayers. How is it… that tax payers of the city of North Carolina pay taxes to fund public health services for the community, and we have allowed this issue to go unsolved? My estimation is that it has a lot to due with the fact that (and in the words of my best friend), “This is Capitalist America. The Government don’t give a fuck about the homeless!” Camree Mills- Gladney.

While this statement has some truth, I like to believe that there is some hope for the hopeless… some hope for the homeless.

The following information could be considered common knowledge; however, it can also be found at Investopedia.com. Local taxes fund government services such as police and fire services, education and health services, libraries, road maintenance, and other programs and projects which benefit the community at large. Many of these services also receive federal funds in the form of government grants. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering why we pay all this money in taxes from every paycheck, but things like health and safety haven’t been prioritized enough to provide sanitary living conditions for a city’s overwhelming homeless population.

According to the 2019 financial statement for the Mecklenburg County for North Carolina, “The Housing First Charlotte-Mecklenburg Partnership launched in April 2017 as a collaboration to help end chronic homelessness in Charlotte. HFCM Partnership began as a pitch for a single-site 120 -unit apartment building for the chronically homeless. When plans for the building un- expectedly stalled, the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners by special action vote authorized Community Support Services to hire six staff to work in partnership with Urban Ministry Center, a local homeless services non-profit, to develop a scattered site housing program.” Communities in which shelters consist of camping tents located in the heart of highway intersections, are impacted substantially greater by misfortune, disease, drug usage, and poverty.

Homelessness is a part of the shameful fabric of America. We as a country treat our misfortunate, our hungry, our homeless, or elderly, our disabled differently. We don’t have the same level of empathy for our communities in need that some other countries, like Finland, a country on the rise for solving homelessness does. According to an article titled “Finland: Solving Homelessness”, published by Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster and one of the most successful and relevant international media outlets, “In just eight years, Finland has managed to reduce its number of homeless people by 35 percent. The country’s 'housing first' approach is built on the principle that having a home makes solving other problems easier (DW 1).

Now that I have outlined the issue, and explained why you should care about it, please note that my proposal is two-fold. I’m proposing first a reconsideration of the single site 120-unit apartment building whose development was mysteriously stalled and replaced with scatter homes and the support of a 6-person staff because what we have learned from Findland is that by solving the immediate need for shelter, we can solve many other problems that the lack thereof would create. I am proposing second the creation of a division or subcommittee of the Environmental Health division of the county that will be dedicated solely to the development of programming whose focus would be to affectively impact change among the chronic homeless community of charlotte. Funding for these divisions should ideally fall under the County’s Health and Human Services Agency because according to the 2019 financial statement for the Mecklenburg county “Public Health services protect and promote the public’s health by providing clinical services, environmental health, health policy development and community engagement so that our community is afforded the opportunity to make the healthy choice the easy choice. Public Health is responsible for assessing health services and needs in the community; mobilizing community action to address them and protecting the health of the public by assuring that essential services are provided”.

Sources

https://www.dw.com/en/finland-solving-homelessness/av-49047542

https://www.mecknc.gov/CommunitySupportServices/HomelessServices/Pages/default.aspx

https://www.ncdhhs.gov/contact/division-contacts

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2020/04/19/charlotte-homeless-population-living-in-tents-as-shelters-fill-up

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/how-finland-wales-are-fighting-homelessness-021503978.html

https://www.dw.com/en/finland-solving-homelessness/av-49047542